Clinton earned the support of eight in 10 blue-collar whites in Kentucky. She even won a majority of blue-collar whites in Oregon, despite Obama winning the state with the votes of six in 10 whites overall.

How Obama and Clinton won

The two states that voted Tuesday were tailor-made for the Democratic Party's two candidates. Barack Obama's sizable victory was due to the more liberal, independent, upper-class and West Coast electorate of Oregon. Hillary Clinton's whopping victory was possible thanks to the more moderate, more blue-collar, Upper South electorate of Kentucky.

Clinton earned the support of eight in ten blue-collar whites in Kentucky, about 20 percentage points higher than she did in Indiana two weeks back. Clinton even won a majority of blue-collar whites in Oregon, despite Obama winning the state with the votes of six in ten whites overall — a rare feat for the Illinois senator.

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Almost half of Oregon voters were college graduates; only about 35 percent of them backed Clinton. Two thirds of voters in Kentucky lacked a college degree; only one in four of them backed Obama.

Kentucky voters were also 20 percentage points more likely than Oregonians to say the economy was the "most important issue." And nearly six in ten Kentucky voters supported suspending the gas tax while more than six in ten Oregon voters thought it was a "bad idea."

Nearly six in ten Oregon voters said they were liberal, about 30 percentage points more than in Kentucky. Oregon's unusually large liberal electorate is similar to Vermont and Utah, where Obama also won a strong majority of whites.

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Obama won nine in ten blacks in Kentucky, though Clinton carried the state by some 35 percentage points. Clinton, like last week in West Virginia, won fully seven in ten whites in the state. Her more common ceiling with whites outside the Deep South has been closer to six in ten, as it was in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and nationwide on Super Tuesday.

College-educated whites in Kentucky again supported Clinton by a two-to-one margin, continuing Clinton's recent dominance with a group that once split between the two candidates.

Clinton had such strong support among whites in Kentucky that the gender gap was nearly nonexistent. Clinton also won 65 percent of whites under age 30 in Kentucky, a bloc that until last week Obama traditionally split in his poorer showings.

In Oregon, like other more liberal states with small black populations, race appeared less of a factor. Obama won a remarkable six in ten white men in Oregon, and nearly split white women and white voters age 60 and older.

Obama only narrowly won white Democrats overall in Oregon. But white independents supported him there by a two-to-one ratio. Clinton won three in four white Democrats in Kentucky but she only won white independents there by about 10 percentage points.

White independents constituted a fifth of voters in Oregon, twice as many as in Kentucky.

Kentucky's contest served as yet another reminder that the Democrats' divide remains deeper than demographics. As Obama claimed Democrats "have never been" more united — in a speech marking his win of a majority of pledged delegates — nearly six in ten Kentucky Democratic voters said they would not be satisfied if Obama won the nomination. Should Clinton lose, an unusually high one in three Kentucky Democrats said they would vote for Republican John McCain.

The Associated Press and the television networks conducted the polls in both states. Kentucky's results came from a standard exit poll. But in Oregon, all interviews were conducted by phone May 12-18 to compensate for the high number of votes cast by mail.